It is fitting that the two most oppressive and cruel regimes in the Middle East, and two that should not and will soon not exist, would also be the two to build walls.

Israel is already infamous more so for its Apartheid Wall that steals even more Palestinian land, and now the Middle East will play host to another ugly wall dividing people and scaring the land thanks to the Saudis:

“Saudi Arabia on Wednesday moved to bolster security along its borders with Iraq and Yemen with the award of a contract to build a 9,000km security system.”

Saudi media is quite exuberant because the wall will be the longest in the world. I guess when you do not have anything else to brag about, a concrete slab is a point of pride.

Saudi Arabia can now claim another point of emulation for the American far-right. After obscurantism, misogynist, racism, homophobia, and religious fanaticism the Saudis can now be the inspiration for building a wall on the American-Mexican border.

The Saudis are justifying their wall on security grounds by stating they want to keep out dangerous terrorists from Iraq and Yemen whom want to do the Kingdom harm. That is ironic seeing how most of the terrorists who went to Iraq are actually Saudi. And the Yemeni terrorists as well. In fact, the leader of Salafi group in Yemeni is none other than a graduate of Saudi Arabia’s so-called terrorist reeducation camp which is meant to turn militant Muslims into normal Saudi citizens. Saudi Arabia is the biggest export of jihadi fighters and it building a wall for no one expect keeping Saudis who’ve traveled abroad in the cause of jihad from returning to the Kingdom. That is the greatest irony about all of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to combat terrorism: the Kingdom’s state-sanctioned Wahhabi encourages the very terrorism that the authorities then seek to combat when it backfires on the Kingdom. Instead of building a wall, why not finally get rid of the radical clerics?

Finally, it is none ironic though that Saudi Arabia would emulate Israel. The two nations, both states based on exclusive citizenship, have in recent years grown close together behind closed doors. Israeli President Shimon Peres and Saudi King Abduallah have both attended Saudi-hosted Inter-faith gatherings. Is that not nice? [That last part was sarcastic, I make that point because I know some IB readers have a hard time detecting it.]